Personal representative

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The Law of Wills, Trusts and Estate Administration
Part of the common law series
Wills
Wills  · Legal history of wills
Joint wills and mutual wills  · Will contract
Codicils  · Holographic will  · Oral will
Parts of a Will
Attestation clause  · Residuary clause
Incorporation by reference
Contesting a Will
Testamentary capacity  · Undue influence
Insane delusion  · Fraud
Problems of property disposition
Lapse and anti-lapse
Ademption  · Abatement
Acts of independent significance
Elective share  · Pretermitted heir
Trusts
Generic Terms:
Express trust  · Constructive trust
Resulting trust
Common Types of Trust:
Bare trust  · Discretionary trust
Accumulation and Maintenance trust
Interest in Possession trust
Charitable trust  · Purpose trust
Incentive trust
Other Specific Types of Trust:
Protective trust  · Spendthrift trust
Life insurance trust  · Remainder trust
Life interest trust  · Reversionary interest trust
Honorary trust  · Asset-protection trust
Special needs trust: (general)/(U.S.)
Doctrines governing trusts
Pour-over will  · Cy-près doctrine
Estate Administration
Intestacy  · Testator  · Probate
Power of appointment
Simultaneous death  · Slayer rule
Disclaimer of interest
Other related topics
Living Wills (advance directives)
Totten trust
Other areas of the Common Law
Contract law  · Tort law  · Property law
Criminal law  · Evidence

In common law jurisdictions, a personal representative is the generic term for an executor for the estate of a deceased person who left a will or the administrator of an intestate estate.^[1] In either case, a probate court of competent jurisdiction issues a finding of fact, including that a will has or has not been filed, and that an executor or administrator has been appointed. These are often referred to as "letters testamentary", "letters of administration" or "letters of representation", as the case may be. These documents, with the appropriate death certificate are often the only license a person needs to do the banking, stock trading, real estate transactions and other actions necessary to marshal and dispose of the decedent's estate in the name of the estate itself.

As a fiduciary, a personal representative has the duties of:

1. loyalty
2. candor or honesty
3. good faith.

In the U.S., punctilio of honor, or the highest standard of honor, is the term used to describe the level of scrupulousness that a fiduciary must abide by. ^[2]

Types of personal representatives include:

• Executor or Executrix (term for females)
• Alternate executor
• Administrator
• Ancilllary administrator
• Administrator de bonis non - one acting without complete authority
• Public administrator
• Guardian
• Conservator

In the U.S., the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants appointed a Personal Representative (CSRT) to meet with each captive who was still being held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, in August 2004, when the Supreme Court forced the Department of Defense to start convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Hayton , D. & Marshall, C. (2005). Commentary and Cases on the Law of Trusts and Equitable Remedies. London: Sweet & Maxwell. ISBN 0-421-90190-X.